Ms. Torres: Our coverage includes Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo; soft drink bottlers Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola FEMSA and Coca-Cola Hellenic; and on the Pepsi side - soon to be bought by PepsiCo - Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas. We also cover wine and spirits companies, including Brown-Forman and Constellation Brands. Brown-Forman is primarily spirits, with brands such as Jack Daniel's, Southern Comfort and Finlandia Vodka. But they also have wine brands. And Constellation Brands is primarily a wine company; they have a few spirit brands, and they're also the sole importer of Modelo's beer brands to the United States. So they are in each of the alcoholic beverage segments. And then as far as the brewers are concerned, we cover the Latin American brewers, the two Mexican brewers, FEMSA and Grupo Modelo, which basically have a duopoly in Mexico, and the largest Brazilian brewer, which is AmBev, and they are also a Pepsi distributor in Brazil. So that's our coverage there. One additional brewer that we cover is SABMiller, it's the second largest brewer with operations all around the world. So I think that covers our list of companies under coverage. And it is global coverage of U.S. companies, Latin American companies and some European companies.
TWST: How insulated from the recession are non-alcoholic beverages, like Coke and Pepsi?
Ms. Torres: I don't think any company is insulated from the recession or weak consumer trends globally. Our companies are feeling the impact, but I guess the bright side is that the beverage sector is a defensive sector and people can typically afford soft drinks, so the sector has done relatively well. But that's not to say on the bad news side that it has not been impacted as consumer trends are weaker. People's consumption habits have changed, meaning that consumption primarily on-premise has been quite weak. So people eating and drinking out in restaurants and bars has been one of the weakest channels that we've seen. Also the convenience channel is weaker. People fill up their cars with gas and choose not to go into the convenience store to purchase anything for that matter; there are less sales going on there. And even for at-home, people are making more price-sensitive purchases. There is still value to be had by buying beverages, and families still consume different types of beverages at home. So at-home consumption has held up relatively well. But at the same time, different categories have been impacted. For instance, bottled water has been a particularly weak category this year because there is an easy substitute in tap water. So companies, like Coke and Pepsi, that were doing well selling bottled water, flavored water and enhanced water, those are categories that have been particularly hit hard as a result of the recession because people pare back their purchases in those categories. So by category, by channel, by country, you're seeing different ways that the consumer is changing his or her behavior, and how some channels are doing worse than others and how the category is not in free-fall as compared to some less-defensive sectors. But at the same time, you are seeing consumers make different types of purchases in the beverage industry.
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